"What strange concept," Devo [ tickets ]'s Gerald Casale said between "Gut Feeling" and "Come Back Jonny," near the conclusion of his band's first performance on a 16-show, eight-city tour that finds them alternating between their first album and their third. It might be strange for the Ohio quintet to turn back the clock 31 years to play "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!," a landmark in American new wave, from start to finish, but their brisk and intense execution reaffirmed the importance of this troupe.

Familiarity is Devo's friend on this journey, which features numerous songs that have not been played for decades in a live setting. "Uncontrollable Urge" gives this show a dynamic opener--add it to a list of best first tracks on debut albums. "Jocko Homo" and "Gut Feeling" pummel the audience with an intensity usually associated with a set-closing performance; "Praying Hands" is the great rediscovery within this exercise.

The driving force behind Devo's decision to play 30-year-old albums in full is Warner Bros.' reissues of the two albums in deluxe packages that were released Tuesday (11/3), the same day the band opened the tour at Hollywood's Henry Fonda Theater. On this revisiting--and many of the Devo-tees look like they were around for those '70s shows--the surprise is the vigor and volume with which the music is performed. Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh, Bob I and Bob II have grayed and moved up a size or two in the hazmat jumpsuits, but their spunk is intact.

The show is only an hour. They take 48 minutes to show a couple of early videos and then perform the 34-minute album, following with a two-song encore. It's Devo as entertainment, not the "spud boys" from Akron who set out with electric instruments, a film camera and a treatise on the de-evolution of man in the mid-1970s.

Concept artists as much as they were musicians, Devo were innovators in merging visuals with the audio to comment on American society. Philosophical waxing and imagery that married the industrial with goofiness enhanced the concept of de-evolution that theoretically was at the root of the band's mission; the ideology was never as clear as it was on "Are We Not Men?"

Devo was a jolt to the system when their debut arrived in 1978. Elements of sci-fi scores, Chuck Berry, Captain Beefheart and the Ramones met up with a Rolling Stones cover and a delightful pop ditty called "Mongoloid." It was so random it had to be self-contained; no other band sounded or looked anything like them--it was club to join and a lifestyle to adopt. And their first national tour, which included an appearance on "Saturday Night Live," was a louder, faster, funnier version of the record. After a lengthy absence, the concept works without the mist of nostalgia.

This is the Devo with masks, fake hair, yellow jumpsuits and black '20s-style bathing costumes with knee pads. The red flower-pot hats are for the Hollywood stand's second night, when "Freedom of Choice"--with "Girl U Want" and "Whip It"--is played in full.

Devo is expected to tour worldwide next year in connection with the release of their first new album in 20 years.